Sánchez Martín, José María, ed., trans., Isidori Hispalensis Versus (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers (Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina CXIIIA))
Text name(s): Versus; Verses
Number of pages of primary source text: 26
Author(s):
Dates: 560 - 636
Archival Reference:
Original Language(s):
- Latin
Translation:
- Translated into another language (see translation comments).
- Original language included.
Translation Comments: Translation into Spanish found on pages facing the original Latin.
Geopolitical Region(s):
- Europe
County/Region:
Record Types:
Subject Headings:
- Theology - History
- Classics / Humanism
- Church Fathers
- Theology - Scriptural / Exegesis
Apparatus:
- Index
- Bibliography
- Introduction
Comments:
Isidore, Archbishop of Seville and Doctor of the Church, was one of the most significant figures of Visigothic Spain, exerting a tremendous influence in his own time (through his vigorous participation in the various synods of the early seventh century) as well as on education throughout the Middle Ages (through his extensive writings). His vast learning and debt to the Latin classics has led him to be considered “the last scholar of the ancient world.” The Versus is a collection of the extant poems of Isidore, composed in elegiac distichs and in clear imitation of the ancient poet Martial. The subjects of the twenty-seven poems included here (a total of 104 verses) range from Isidore’s reflections on his episcopal library to the use of Sacred Scripture, to his estimation of the various Fathers of the Church. A commentary on the Latin text and indices of literary sources, Latin forms and manuscript sources follow the poems. This is the only critical edition available for Isidore’s Verses.
Introduction Summary:
The thorough introductory materials (173 pp., in Spanish) discuss Isidore’s attitudes toward poetry, his place within the epigrammatic tradition, arguments in favor of the Isidorian authorship of the verses, Isidore’s classical and Christian sources, and the poems’ textual transmission. Also included is a stylistic analysis of the poems which examines the merits of their artistry.
Cataloger: WLL
